|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By: Ellen Cans
On Monday, the Nassau County legislature voted to ban transgender athletes from competing at county-owned facilities, unless they play as the gender they were assigned at birth, or on coed teams.
As reported by the NY Times, the Long Island county which is led by Republicans, has been debating the topic for months. Back in February, the county executive, Bruce Blakeman, issued an executive order to institute a ban to keep transgender players from skewing the playing field, and gaining an unfair advantage, especially when competing against female players. In May, a judge ruled that Mr. Blakeman did not have the authority to impose the ban.
That decision is still being appealed by Mr. Blakeman. The court had ruled that only a legislative body has authority to pass such a ban. Thats when the vote was set up at the legislature. With its Republican majority, the Nassau County Legislature voted 12 to 5 in favor of the ban, with two legislators being absent. The bill now only needs to be signed into law by Mr. Blakeman.
The bill states that sports leagues or organizations that apply for permits to use county parks department facilities must designate their teams as male, female or coed with all members adhering to the gender assigned to them at birth. The topic has gained steam particularly in reference to women’s sports, where many say that transgender women have a strong biological advantage.
Transgender advocates had come out in large numbers to oppose the ban, filling the chamber’s public seating, holding pink and purple signs that read “trans women are women.” The public comment period lasted more than an hour—with everyone the speakers advocating for transgenders. Per the Times, one of the speakers during the comments period was Susan Gottehrer, the director of the Nassau County chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, which was part of the push to have Mr. Blakeman’s original order struck down.
“This is banning people from government property,” Ms. Gottehrer said. “Let’s think very carefully before we do that.”
Also, all the Democratic members of the Legislature criticized the bill, noting that the money being used to address this cause could have been used for a wide array of issues. The most heated part of the session, was undoubtedly when Arnold W. Drucker, a Democratic legislator, compared the barring transgender athletes from county facilities to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jewish people. “Aren’t we doing the same thing here?” he asked, gaining a round of applause from the gallery.
“Absolutely not,” Ms. LaGreca replied, calling the comparison “extremely insulting.”
“This is not a transgender ban,” said John R. Ferretti Jr., a Republican legislator from Levittown, noting that transgender women could still compete, only that they must play in men’s or coed leagues.
In April, a Siena College poll found that 66 percent of New York voters said that they believed that high school athletes should be required to compete in the gender category they were assigned at birth.
